Families seeking relatives who fought for the Republic during the Spanish Civil War can now consult a public database containing records for 37,002 anti-fascist militia members from Catalonia. The register, created by Memorial Democràtic, the Generalitat body for democratic-memory policies, with the Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya, was presented in Sant Cugat del Vallès on 17 July 2026.

The database covers volunteers who fought between 1936 and 1937. It gives residents and researchers a route to verify a relative's identity, place of residence, and political or trade-union affiliation, using documentation held by the National Archive of Catalonia.

“Democratic memory is also built by making knowledge accessible,” Memorial Democràtic director Jordi Font said at the presentation, describing access to records as a way of preserving a collective legacy and supporting a documented, critical view of the past.

Records recovered from the Salamanca Papers

The register is based on documents known as the Salamanca Papers, including payment records from the Generalitat's subsidy system for militia members. Francoist authorities seized large quantities of Generalitat and other institutional records after the Civil War; the material used for this project was returned to the Generalitat in 2006.

According to Memorial Democràtic and the archive, the data is the first database specifically compiled on Catalonia's Anti-Fascist Militias. These forces were established on 21 July 1936 by a decree signed by then Generalitat president Lluís Companys, principally to resist the advance of the rebel troops.

  • The register currently contains 37,002 names.
  • It identifies 1,500 women, whom the research describes as 5% of those recorded.
  • Researcher Gonzalo Berger began the study at the University of Barcelona in 2015, and the work is expected to continue.

How relatives and researchers can use the register

The material forms part of the Banc de Memòria Democràtica, Memorial Democràtic's democratic-memory collection. The records may help users establish whether a person enlisted, where they lived and their recorded affiliation, although the available information depends on the surviving documents.

People searching for a family member or conducting research can start through the Memorial Democràtic website, where the public database is available.

Primary sources: memoria.gencat.cat, memoria.gencat.cat, gonzalo berger. Reported by Source Text Link, infobae.com, elDiario.es Catalunya, vilaweb.cat, ground.news, Ignacio Francia, Ellitoral.com, Sílvia Marimon, elpais.com, CatalunyaPress.es, Berger Mulattieri, Gonzalo, 1977-, scholar.google.es, CCMA, Diari ARA.